Golden Globes backers plan open news conference

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sponsors of Hollywood's Golden
Globe Awards said on Friday they will take control from TV
network NBC of a weekend news conference announcing winners of
the coveted film and TV honors, which will open the live
broadcast to other media.

The announcement of the open media event by the Hollywood
Foreign Press Association sparked a response from striking film
and TV writers assuring the HFPA they would not picket it.

The Golden Globe Awards are one of Hollywood's glitziest TV
awards shows reaching more than 20 million viewers, and they
are a key indicator of what movies may compete for February's
Oscars, the world's top movie honors.

But this year's Golden Globes ceremony, which was planned
for January 13, had been canceled in favor of a news conference
on the same day because of the strike by members of the Writers
Guild of America.

The WGA, which represents some 10,500 film and TV writers,
had threatened to picket the Golden Globes ceremony. Many
actors had said they would refuse to cross picket lines.

As a result, the HFPA canceled its ceremony in favor of the
news conference but NBC, which owned the right to broadcast the
ceremony, said it would be the only TV network to air it live.

By Thursday, the network had not revealed the format of the
one-hour conference except to say it would be preceded by a
taped two-hour "Dateline NBC" special on the Golden Globes
hosted by Matt Lauer of NBC's weekday morning show "Today."